WASHINGTON–The U.S. on Wednesday targeted another Russian bank, several dozen firms owned by a blacklisted Russian oligarch and–for the first time–a cryptocurrency-mining firm, in a tranche of sanctions marking a new phase in the West’s pressure campaign against Moscow.
The latest punitive economic measures are designed to disrupt some of the ways Russia is seeking to sidestep the U.S.-led sanctions campaign, said administration officials.
“Treasury can and will target those who evade, attempt to evade, or aid the evasion of U.S. sanctions against Russia,” Brian Nelson, Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a written statement accompanying the action.
Over the past several months, the U.S. and its Western allies have levied sanctions against the Kremlin and its institutions of power, industry and finance in an effort to persuade President Vladimir Putin to abandon his war in Ukraine. As the U.S. and its allies test the political limits of the types of sanctions they are prepared to levy–notably avoiding a total energy embargo–they are now focusing more on the holes in the existing net of prohibitions against Russian trade and finance.
The action targets Transkapitalbank, more than 40 individuals and companies associated with previously sanctioned Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev, and one of the largest crypto-mining companies in the world, Russian-owned Bitriver AG. Transkapital, for example, is allegedly offering dollar-transaction services that don’t use the world’s primary financial-messaging service, Swift.
The targeted family members, businesses and corporate officials associated with of Mr. Malofeyev, who was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2014 for allegedly funding pro-Russia militant separatists in Eastern Ukraine, are allegedly part of a global network used by the oligarch to help Russia evade sanctions.
Transkapital, Bitriver and Mr. Malofeyev, contacted through one of the sanctioned companies he owns, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Treasury Department said its blacklisting of Bitriver and 10 of its subsidiaries are designed to ensure that “no asset, no matter how complex, becomes a mechanism for the Putin regime to offset the impact of sanctions.”
The State Department also imposed visa restrictions on 635 Russian nationals it says are involved in suppressing dissent against the Ukraine invasion in Russia and abroad.